Shropshire Star comment: Lessons to learn from data leaks

So the revelation that there may have been a data breach at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital at Oswestry is a matter of great concern.

The hows and whys do not seem clear at the moment, but the trust which runs the hospital has reported the breach in relation to patients involved in a long-standing study.

Those affected are now being contacted to have what has happened explained, and they are to be given an apology. What we don’t know is whether the information was passed over to a particular party when it should not have been, and if so what interest that party might have had and its intentions on receiving the information, or whether the nature of the data breach was accidentally putting something into the public domain generally.

For years there has been a heads-in-the-sand approach to data protection, with security updates years behind the times, as demonstrated when vulnerable NHS computers were taken down not long ago.

Of late data protection has become a hot topic, largely because politicians have found a political handle to the subject, with controversies over the role of Cambridge Analytica and so on.

Having said that, there is a measure of reassurance to be had by the way the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has responded.

It has reported the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office and has launched an investigation. Initial indications are that a limited amount of data is involved.

How those patients who are being contacted about what has happened will react remains to be seen. Their reaction may well be governed by the nature of the information which has slipped the net.

It is to be hoped it is inconsequential data and that the whole affair turns out to be essentially harmless, but one through which lessons are learned and leaks are effectively plugged.